IDEAS home Printed from https://ideas.repec.org/a/taf/applec/v38y2006i9p981-996.html

Burden sharing in a greenhouse: egalitarianism and sovereignty reconciled

Author

Listed:
  • Christoph Bohringer
  • Heinz Welsch

Abstract

The allocation of emission entitlements across countries is the single most controversial issue in international climate policy. Extreme positions within the policy debate range from entitlements based on current emission patterns (sovereignty) to entitlements based on equal-per-capita allocations (egalitarianism). This paper shows that gradual convergence from sovereignty towards egalitarianism could provide a pragmatic solution to the equity debate: When combined with international emissions trading, the convergence approach stands out for offering the developing countries substantial incentives for participation in the international greenhouse gas abatement effort without imposing excessive burdens on the industrialized countries.

Suggested Citation

  • Christoph Bohringer & Heinz Welsch, 2006. "Burden sharing in a greenhouse: egalitarianism and sovereignty reconciled," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 38(9), pages 981-996.
    • Handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:38:y:2006:i:9:p:981-996
    DOI: 10.1080/00036840500399453
    as

    Download full text from publisher

    File URL: http://www.tandfonline.com/doi/abs/10.1080/00036840500399453
    Download Restriction: Access to full text is restricted to subscribers.
    File URL: https://libkey.io/10.1080/00036840500399453?utm_source=ideas
    LibKey link: if access is restricted and if your library uses this service, LibKey will redirect you to where you can use your library subscription to access this item
    ---><---

    As the access to this document is restricted, you may want to

    for a different version of it.

    References listed on IDEAS

    as
    1. repec:aen:journl:1999si-a05 is not listed on IDEAS
    2. Böhringer, Christoph & Welsch, Heinz, 1999. "C & C - contraction and convergence of carbon emissions: the economic implications of permit trading," ZEW Discussion Papers 99-13, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    3. repec:aen:journl:2004v25-02-a02 is not listed on IDEAS
    4. Gollier, Christian & Jullien, Bruno & Treich, Nicolas, 2000. "Scientific progress and irreversibility: an economic interpretation of the 'Precautionary Principle'," Journal of Public Economics, Elsevier, vol. 75(2), pages 229-253, February.
    5. Welsch, Heinz, 1993. "A CO2 agreement proposal with flexible quotas," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 21(7), pages 748-756, July.
    6. Alan Manne & Richard Richels, 1992. "Buying Greenhouse Insurance: The Economic Costs of CO2 Emission Limits," MIT Press Books, The MIT Press, edition 1, volume 1, number 026213280x, December.
    7. Kverndokk, S., 1992. "Tradeable CO2 Emission Permits: Initial Distribution as a Justice Problem," Memorandum 1992_023, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    8. Jean-Marc Burniaux & John P. Martin & Giuseppe Nicoletti & Joaquim Oliveira Martins, 1992. "GREEN a Multi-Sector, Multi-Region General Equilibrium Model for Quantifying the Costs of Curbing CO2 Emissions: A Technical Manual," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 116, OECD Publishing.
    9. Christoph Bohringer, 2002. "Industry-level emission trading between power producers in the EU," Applied Economics, Taylor & Francis Journals, vol. 34(4), pages 523-533.
    10. Schmidt, Tobias F. N. & Koschel, Henrike, 1998. "Climate change policy and burden sharing in the European Union: applying alternative equity rules to a CGE-framework," ZEW Discussion Papers 98-12, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    11. repec:aen:journl:1995v16-04-a01 is not listed on IDEAS
    12. Jean-Marc Burniaux & John P. Martin & Giuseppe Nicoletti & Joaquim Oliveira Martins, 1992. "The Costs of Reducing CO2 Emissions: A Technical Manual," OECD Economics Department Working Papers 115, OECD Publishing.
    13. Kverndokk, S., 1992. "Global co2 Agreements: A Cost Efficient Approach," Memorandum 1992_004, Oslo University, Department of Economics.
    14. Carraro, Carlo & Buchner, Barbara & Cersosimo, Igor, 2002. "On the Consequences of the US Withdrawal from the Kyoto/Bonn Protocol," CEPR Discussion Papers 3239, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    15. repec:aen:journl:1993v14-02-a05 is not listed on IDEAS
    16. Copeland, Brian R. & Taylor, M. Scott, 2005. "Free trade and global warming: a trade theory view of the Kyoto protocol," Journal of Environmental Economics and Management, Elsevier, vol. 49(2), pages 205-234, March.
    17. Gunter Stephan & Georg Müller-Fürstenberger, 2004. "Does Distribution Matter? Efficiency, Equity and Flexibility in Greenhouse Gas Abatement," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 27(1), pages 87-107, January.
    18. Adam Rose & Brandt Stevens & Jae Edmonds & Marshall Wise, 1998. "International Equity and Differentiation in Global Warming Policy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 12(1), pages 25-51, July.
    19. Christoph Böhringer & Thomas Rutherford, 2002. "Carbon Abatement and International Spillovers," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 22(3), pages 391-417, July.
    Full references (including those not matched with items on IDEAS)

    Citations

    Citations are extracted by the CitEc Project, subscribe to its RSS feed for this item.
    as


    Cited by:

    1. Nicola Cantore & Emilio Padilla, 2007. "Equity and CO2 Emissions Distribution in Climate Change Integrated Assessment," Working Papers wpdea0705, Department of Applied Economics at Universitat Autonoma of Barcelona.
    2. Andries Hof & Michel Elzen & Detlef Vuuren, 2010. "Including adaptation costs and climate change damages in evaluating post-2012 burden-sharing regimes," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 15(1), pages 19-40, January.
    3. Zhou, P. & Wang, M., 2016. "Carbon dioxide emissions allocation: A review," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 47-59.
    4. Andries Hof & Michel Elzen & Detlef Vuuren, 2009. "Environmental effectiveness and economic consequences of fragmented versus universal regimes: what can we learn from model studies?," International Environmental Agreements: Politics, Law and Economics, Springer, vol. 9(1), pages 39-62, February.
    5. Cantore, Nicola & Padilla, Emilio, 2010. "Equality and CO2 emissions distribution in climate change integrated assessment modelling," Energy, Elsevier, vol. 35(1), pages 298-313.
    6. Roman Lokhov & Heinz Welsch, 2008. "Emissions trading between Russia and the European Union: a CGE analysis of potentials and impacts," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 9(1), pages 1-23, March.
    7. Christoph Böhringer & Nicholas Rivers & Thomas Rutherford & Randall Wigle, 2015. "Sharing the burden for climate change mitigation in the Canadian federation," Canadian Journal of Economics/Revue canadienne d'économique, John Wiley & Sons, vol. 48(4), pages 1350-1380, November.
    8. Wu, Yinyin & Wang, Ping & Liu, Xin & Chen, Jiandong & Song, Malin, 2020. "Analysis of regional carbon allocation and carbon trading based on net primary productivity in China," China Economic Review, Elsevier, vol. 60(C).
    9. Patrick Matschoss & Heinz Welsch, 2006. "International Emissions Trading and Induced Carbon-Saving Technological Change: Effects of Restricting the Trade in Carbon Rights," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 33(2), pages 169-198, February.
    10. Xunzhang Pan & Fei Teng, 2017. "Assessment of China’s Mitigation Targets in an Effort-Sharing Framework," Sustainability, MDPI, vol. 9(7), pages 1-16, June.
    11. Siriwardana, Mahinda & Nong, Duy, 2015. "Australia in an International Emissions Trading (ETS) Scheme: An Economic Evaluation Using the GTAP-E Model," Conference papers 332632, Purdue University, Center for Global Trade Analysis, Global Trade Analysis Project.
    12. Lining Wang & Wenying Chen & XunZhang Pan & Nan Li & Huan Wang & Danyang Li & Han Chen, 2018. "Scale and benefit of global carbon markets under the 2 °C goal: integrated modeling and an effort-sharing platform," Mitigation and Adaptation Strategies for Global Change, Springer, vol. 23(8), pages 1207-1223, December.
    13. Marco R. Barassi & Nicola Spagnolo & Yuqian Zhao, 2018. "Fractional Integration Versus Structural Change: Testing the Convergence of $$\hbox {CO}_{2}$$ CO 2 Emissions," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 71(4), pages 923-968, December.
    14. van Ruijven, Bas J. & Weitzel, Matthias & den Elzen, Michel G.J. & Hof, Andries F. & van Vuuren, Detlef P. & Peterson, Sonja & Narita, Daiju, 2012. "Emission allowances and mitigation costs of China and India resulting from different effort-sharing approaches," Energy Policy, Elsevier, vol. 46(C), pages 116-134.
    15. Mark M. Dekker & Andries F. Hof & Yann Robiou Pont & Nicole Berg & Vassilis Daioglou & Michel Elzen & Rik Heerden & Elena Hooijschuur & Isabela Schmidt Tagomori & Chantal Würschinger & Detlef P. Vuure, 2025. "Navigating the black box of fair national emissions targets," Nature Climate Change, Nature, vol. 15(7), pages 752-759, July.

    Most related items

    These are the items that most often cite the same works as this one and are cited by the same works as this one.
    1. Böhringer, Christoph & Welsch, Heinz, 2001. "Contraction of global carbon emissions: how acceptable are alternative emission entitlement schemes," ZEW Discussion Papers 01-65, ZEW - Leibniz Centre for European Economic Research.
    2. Bohringer, Christoph & Welsch, Heinz, 2004. "Contraction and Convergence of carbon emissions: an intertemporal multi-region CGE analysis," Journal of Policy Modeling, Elsevier, vol. 26(1), pages 21-39, January.
    3. Böhringer, Christoph & Helm, Carsten, 2008. "On the fair division of greenhouse gas abatement cost," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 30(2), pages 260-276, May.
    4. Zhou, P. & Wang, M., 2016. "Carbon dioxide emissions allocation: A review," Ecological Economics, Elsevier, vol. 125(C), pages 47-59.
    5. Gjerde, Jon & Grepperud, Sverre & Kverndokk, Snorre, 1999. "Optimal climate policy under the possibility of a catastrophe," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 21(3-4), pages 289-317, August.
    6. Christoph Böhringer & Klaus Conrad & Andreas Löschel, 2003. "Carbon Taxes and Joint Implementation. An Applied General Equilibrium Analysis for Germany and India," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 24(1), pages 49-76, January.
    7. repec:aen:journl:ej37-si1-fan is not listed on IDEAS
    8. VAN STEENBERGHE, Vincent, 2003. "CO2 abatement costs and permits price : Exploring the impact of banking and the role of future commitments," LIDAM Discussion Papers CORE 2003098, Université catholique de Louvain, Center for Operations Research and Econometrics (CORE).
    9. Johan Eyckmans & Michael Finus, 2006. "New roads to international environmental agreements: the case of global warming," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 7(4), pages 391-414, March.
    10. Baker, Erin, 2005. "Uncertainty and learning in a strategic environment: global climate change," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 27(1), pages 19-40, January.
    11. Carraro, Carlo & Bosello, Francesco & Buchner, Barbara & Raggi, Davide, 2003. "Can Equity Enhance Efficiency? Some Lessons from Climate Negotiations," CEPR Discussion Papers 3606, C.E.P.R. Discussion Papers.
    12. Kverndokk, Snorre & Rose, Adam, 2008. "Equity and Justice in Global Warming Policy," International Review of Environmental and Resource Economics, now publishers, vol. 2(2), pages 135-176, October.
    13. Birgit Bednar-Friedl & Karl Farmer & Andreas Rainer, 2010. "Effects of Unilateral Climate Policy on Terms of Trade, Capital Accumulation, and Welfare in a World Economy," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 47(4), pages 495-520, December.
    14. Nicolas Treich, 2000. "Décision séquentielle et Principe de Précaution," Cahiers d'Economie et Sociologie Rurales, INRA Department of Economics, vol. 55, pages 5-24.
    15. Birgit Bednar-Friedl & Veronika Kulmer & Thomas Schinko, 2012. "The effectiveness of anti-leakage policies in the European Union: results for Austria," Empirica, Springer;Austrian Institute for Economic Research;Austrian Economic Association, vol. 39(2), pages 233-260, May.
    16. Akira Maeda, 2014. "Estimating the impact of emission reduction target-setting on the macroeconomy," Environmental Economics and Policy Studies, Springer;Society for Environmental Economics and Policy Studies - SEEPS, vol. 16(4), pages 381-395, October.
    17. Ordás Criado, C. & Grether, J.-M., 2011. "Convergence in per capita CO2 emissions: A robust distributional approach," Resource and Energy Economics, Elsevier, vol. 33(3), pages 637-665, September.
    18. Fisher, Brian S. & Tulpule, Vivek & Brown, Stephen, 1998. "The climate change negotiations: the case for differentiation," Australian Journal of Agricultural and Resource Economics, Australian Agricultural and Resource Economics Society, vol. 42(01), pages 1-15.
    19. M. Germain & V. van Steenberghe, 2003. "Constraining Equitable Allocations of Tradable CO 2 Emission Quotas by Acceptability," Environmental & Resource Economics, Springer;European Association of Environmental and Resource Economists, vol. 26(3), pages 469-492, November.
    20. Kejia Yang & Yalin Lei & Weiming Chen & Lingna Liu, 2018. "Carbon dioxide emission reduction quota allocation study on Chinese provinces based on two-stage Shapley information entropy model," Natural Hazards: Journal of the International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, Springer;International Society for the Prevention and Mitigation of Natural Hazards, vol. 91(1), pages 321-335, March.
    21. Jean Charles Hourcade & Franck Lecocq, 2003. "Le taux d'actualisation contre le principe de précaution ? Leçons à partir du cas des politiques climatiques," Working Papers halshs-00000967, HAL.

    More about this item

    Statistics

    Access and download statistics

    Corrections

    All material on this site has been provided by the respective publishers and authors. You can help correct errors and omissions. When requesting a correction, please mention this item's handle: RePEc:taf:applec:v:38:y:2006:i:9:p:981-996. See general information about how to correct material in RePEc.

    If you have authored this item and are not yet registered with RePEc, we encourage you to do it here. This allows to link your profile to this item. It also allows you to accept potential citations to this item that we are uncertain about.

    If CitEc recognized a bibliographic reference but did not link an item in RePEc to it, you can help with this form .

    If you know of missing items citing this one, you can help us creating those links by adding the relevant references in the same way as above, for each refering item. If you are a registered author of this item, you may also want to check the "citations" tab in your RePEc Author Service profile, as there may be some citations waiting for confirmation.

    For technical questions regarding this item, or to correct its authors, title, abstract, bibliographic or download information, contact: Chris Longhurst (email available below). General contact details of provider: http://www.tandfonline.com/RAEC20 .

    Please note that corrections may take a couple of weeks to filter through the various RePEc services.

    IDEAS is a RePEc service. RePEc uses bibliographic data supplied by the respective publishers.